The AutoTrain, Disney World, and MORE report! Picture-heavy. **Final Update 1/5**

Love all the pictures:thumbsup2 It is like taking the trip with you!

Keep the report coming:banana:

Thanks! We love lots of pictures, because they let us relive the trip whenever we want.

Hi! Thank you so much for your wonderful trip report! I'm enjoying it so much! You're doing an awesome job! My family and I took the autotrain to WDW in September 2009, and it's bringing back so many wonderful memories of our trip. We loved the train ride--just not the 4-hour in terrible traffic drive to get there! (We live near Allentown, PA.) I look forward to the rest of your report and hope you're having a great day! Jennifer

Yeah, the trip to get to the AutoTrain can be something since we have to go thru/around Washington DC. But the AutoTrain itself is amazing. We just loved it.

I knew I liked you! Corn dog nuggets are my favorite :lovestruc Plus, I think POFQ is my favorite resort! :laughing:

Did you go to Joes because we always see the ad for them but there's none around??

Thanks! :cool1: Those corn dog nuggets were GREAT. Especially dipped in cheese sauce. Oh, yum. POFQ was just gorgeous. Mom fell in love with it.

Yup, we've seen ads for Joe's but there isn't one anywhere near us. It just looked like a cool place. And it was!


your pictures are great and so is your report.
im getting good ideas for my trip.
:)

Thanks! Glad to help. :goodvibes
 


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Ok - I am LMAO. It looks like the name for the coffee is Smut Roast! :lmao: :rotfl2:


BTW - this is as far as I have gotten and now I need to read the rest and go see if it is possible to take a train from here with our car....pure genius!
 
Ok I need to add the corn nuggets from casey's to my next trip Must do list!!:)

We have a Joe's near my office, fun place to go for group lunches. Glad you guys enjoyed it!!! Oh and I love the pics of your DD in the pool, her face says it all! And aren't those smiles exactly why we save and plan all year? Makes it all worth it! :love:
 
Ok - I am LMAO. It looks like the name for the coffee is Smut Roast!

BTW - this is as far as I have gotten and now I need to read the rest and go see if it is possible to take a train from here with our car....pure genius!

OMG, you're right!!!! It does look like Smut Roast!! (It's supposed to be Smart Roast.)

I dont' think the AutoTrain will work for ya, though. It only runs between Lorton, VA to Sanford, FL. :confused3 That would be um... quite a way out of your way, I do think... :lmao:


Ok I need to add the corn nuggets from casey's to my next trip Must do list!!:)

We have a Joe's near my office, fun place to go for group lunches. Glad you guys enjoyed it!!! Oh and I love the pics of your DD in the pool, her face says it all! And aren't those smiles exactly why we save and plan all year? Makes it all worth it! :love:

The corn nuggets were really very tasty. Joe's was a lot of fun, and we really enjoyed it. Looks like that one are what makes it worthwhile.
 


You guys packed a lot into one day! Add me to the list of "I've gotta try those corn dog nuggets" people. They look awesome.

I've never eaten at a Joe's either and really enjoyed your pictures. I may just have to give Joe's a try next time I see one.
 
You guys packed a lot into one day! Add me to the list of "I've gotta try those corn dog nuggets" people. They look awesome.

I've never eaten at a Joe's either and really enjoyed your pictures. I may just have to give Joe's a try next time I see one.

Oh, yes. We've been known to cram a day just full of fun! :rotfl2: And those corn dog nuggets really were good. I got some from Walmart recently, and they just don't cut it. Definitely not Disney corn dog nuggets.

Joe's was fun. Definitely a casual atmosphere. The food was really pretty good, too.
 
Alrighty! Today is our first FULL day at Disney!! I woke up fairly early (considering we were on vacation). It was right around 6:30 or so. I got up and had a shower, then Mom got one. DH and DD were still sleeping. I went down to the truck to pick up a few things we hadn't brought up the night before. I got a couple of nice morning pictures...

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Our room was on the second floor - the one with the blue-ish shutters and yellow door.
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Around 8:00 am, Mom and I decided to walk to the food court to fill up our mugs. We took a few pictures along the way. It was pictures of this fountain that made Mom fall in love with this resort before we even got here. Way back when we were planning this trip, and I switched to Port Orleans French Quarter from Pop Century (because of codes offered), I sent Mom a picture of this fountain from someone else's trip report (I don't remember whose it was now!!!). She absolutely fell in love with it.

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These two aren't the best, as the sun was in our faces. But we were just happy to be there!
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Nope, DH wasn't interested in moving too quickly this morning. :D
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We just had breakfast in the room this morning. I had brought cereal, english muffins, peanut butter, stuff like that. It was right around 9:00 am when we finally headed out to a park.
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Yup, we were heading to EPCOT!! The Flower and Garden Festival was ending in just a couple of days, and Mom really wanted to see some of the displays. From the time we left the lobby of the French Quarter until the time we arrived at the gates of EPCOT, it took about 25 minutes. That includes waiting at the bus stop, riding to EPCOT and walking from the bus stop to the gates. Not too bad.
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EPCOT was a little busy this morning. Especially near the entrance display.
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There was just no waiting for a clear picture, so I have lots of strangers in this one! :D
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We spotted our first character!!!
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No idea who those people are. I just took the picture of Daisy on the fly.

I think we'll leave off here for right now -- just seems like a good breaking spot. Up next -- how much of EPCOT do we see today
?
 


When we last left off, we had just entered EPCOT. Our first attraction of the day – Spaceship Earth!

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DD loves this ride. DD, Mom and I got in line. Well, what there was of the line! Not much of one. This was basically a walk-on. DH didn’t want to ride and just did some people-watching. We enjoyed ourselves on the trip through time.

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We had fun with the interactive part of the ride, too.

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After the ride, we took in some of the plant exhibits while making our way back to DH.

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From here, we made our way over to the Seas.

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I love these birds. I will start saying, “Mine! Mine!” at random times, just to annoy the DD. It’s such fun.

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It was time for a ride with Nemo and Friends. Again, DH decided to just people-watch while me, Mom and DD rode. This was another walk-on pretty much. By the time we FINALLY made our way through that super-long queue, we might have waited one minute in line. If that.

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After the ride, we looked around a little bit.

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Looks like a beautiful day, doesn’t it? It was. But it was HOT. By this time, it was 11:00 am. Today’s high was in the upper 80’s. It just felt HOT already. So, we decided a little bit of refreshment was in order. We stopped at a cart right near the Seas pavillion. DH didn’t want anything. I got an ice-cold bottle of water. DD and Mom each got a frozen pineapple juice bar. They said that these were delicious – very refreshing. Total here was $9.00.

We wandered slowly toward the World Showcase, taking pictures of some of the flowers and critters while enjoying our refreshments.

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Continued in next post -- too many pictures...
 
You can see here what a beautiful day it was. The crowds weren’t too bad, either. Now. (insert foreboding music here – dum dum DUMMMMMM)

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We came across a little playground area. DD had fun climbing on the stuff here for a few minutes.

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Mom was fascinated by the Segways going by.

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More flowers and plants.

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We'll leave off here for now.
 
ok, I found your TR from reading DisneyDawns and I'm loving it! I'm all caught up and can't wait for more! the video of your mom on the slide is a keeper! just too cute!
 
Great job on the pics!!! I would love to go some time to see all the flowers and stuff in person but your pics were wonderful:thumbsup2
 
Great report so far! Thank you thank you thank you for being heavy on the pictures! Every trip report should be that way :)
 
I am totally enjoying your report! So funny how you aggravated your daughter with the seagulls' Mine! Mine! Mine!

Looking forward to more trip report!
 
ok, I found your TR from reading DisneyDawns and I'm loving it! I'm all caught up and can't wait for more! the video of your mom on the slide is a keeper! just too cute!

Dawn's reports are great, aren't they??? Mom had such fun at that pool, too.

Nice report and great photos.

What camera are you using?

Thank you!! We used a total of four cameras on this trip! I have a Canon Powershot SX10is. I also use a Fujifilm FinePix Z33 WP (waterproof camera). Mom uses a Kodak Easyshare C182. DD used a Canon Powershot A470.

Great job on the pics!!! I would love to go some time to see all the flowers and stuff in person but your pics were wonderful:thumbsup2

Thank you! Mom was really happy that we were able to catch part of the Flower and Garden festival.

Great report so far! Thank you thank you thank you for being heavy on the pictures! Every trip report should be that way :)

Thank you. We love to take pictures. Between the four cameras we had, we ended up with over 3,500 pictures over the trip.

I am totally enjoying your report! So funny how you aggravated your daughter with the seagulls' Mine! Mine! Mine!

Looking forward to more trip report!

I love to annoy the DD with the Mine! Mine! at random times. :lmao: Another update will be coming soon.
 
When we last left off, we were heading toward the World Showcase.

We started making our way around the World Showcase.

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We went into a couple of shops. Mom had fun taking pictures of the merchandise.

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Mom ended up buying a couple souveniers in England. She also bought DD a stuffed dragon. I don’t have her receipts, so I have no idea what the total here was.

We continued our trip around the World Showcase. It was getting hotter and a bit more crowded as we went.

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Right about noon, we stopped at the France pavillion. We decided that a nice air-conditioned movie would be a good thing right about now. We had to wait about 10 minutes for the next show of Impressions de France. You can see DD’s new dragon here.

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By the time the movie started, that place was packed! One family had the right idea – they sat down in the waiting area and had some sandwiches while they waited to be let into the theater. Good idea, actually. They had a pit-stop to refuel and it was nice and cool in there.

We actually enjoyed the movie. It was a nice rest, and the movie was really beautiful. We then continued on a bit more.

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DD and one of her favorite characters.

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By the time we came around the the United States portion of the World Showcase, it was about 1:00 pm. We saw these guys marching.

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We decided that lunch was in order. We stopped at the Liberty Inn. Oh. My. Goodness. We found the crowds. Apparently I didn’t take a picture, but this place was MOBBED!!! And it was about five adults and 1600 kids, I think. At least, that's what it looked like! All of the kids had on blue T-shirts, so I’m assuming it was a school trip or something. But there were TONS of kids and only a few adults visible. And they were LOUD. Not shouting or rude, just LOUD because there were so many kids.

Mom and DD found us a table (inside – AIR CONDITIONING!!) while DH and I went to order.

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You can see some of the Blue-Shirts behind DH here. They had mostly cleared out by this time.

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I don’t have pictures of the food here. We were all hot and tired. We just wanted to EAT! DH had the bacon cheeseburger, fries and a Coke. Mom had the kid’s chicken wrap meal with grapes, fries and a water. DD had the pork sandwich with cole slaw and an iced tea. I had the hot roast beef sandwich with fries and a Coke. Total cost here was $37.73. I was hot and tired, like I said before. And my first bite of sandwich got spit out. Nowhere on the menu was it mentioned that there are TOMATOES on this hot roast beef and cheddar sandwich. YUCK!!! I had to open up the sandwich and scrape off gooey tomato. I don’t mind tomatoes in stuff like spaghetti sauce or chili. But DO NOT put tomatoes on my sandwich. Ick.

Continued in next post -- too many pictures...
 
By the time we finished lunch, it was about quarter till 2:00. We walked around a little bit more of the World Showcase, then decided to head back to the resort for a rest. We caught one of the Friendships across the lagoon, so we wouldn’t have to walk the other half of the World Showcase.

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Look at all the people on the walkway behind the water. AAAHHH!!

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DD found a place to cool off.

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Mom and I also found a nice spot.

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We decided to ride Spaceship Earth one more time, on the way out.

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I thought the Tron monorail trail was cool. I remember seeing this movie at the local drive-in when I was a kid.

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We didn’t have to wait more than a minute or two at the bus stop. By 3:00 pm, we were being dropped of at the French Quarter. Spoiled brat DD was SOOOOO tired and her feet were hurting in these shoes, so DH picked her up and carried her. Brat. hehehehehehehe

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Another pretty fountain at the French Quarter.

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When we got back to our nice cool room, we found a couple of pretties that the Mousekeeper had done for us.

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We just relaxed and vegged in the room for a little while. Then we decided that we simply MUST hit the pool again before supper time. I only took one picture on this pool trip. I was too busy relaxing for the rest of the time.

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I'm going to end here for now. Supper and the rest of the evening will be in the next installment. Overall today -- a good day. The heat got to us a little bit, making for a few cranky moments. Nothing horrible, though. The crowds in the back half of the World Showcase -- EEKS. But the rest of the park was fairly UNcrowded, so it balanced out. All in all -- a good day so far!
 
I am really enjoying reading your trip report. The pictures are just fabulous. I am going down on the 24th of September and cant wait.
 

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